Role of Music in Human Life

Music is one of the greatest creations of human kind in the course of history. It is creativity in a pure and undiluted form and format. Music plays a vital role in our daily life. It is a way of expressing our feelings and emotions. Music is a way to escape life, which gives us relief in pain and helps us to reduce the stress of the daily routine. It helps us to calm down, an even excites us in the moment of joy. Moreover, it enriches the mind and gives us self confidence.

Music surrounds our lives at different moments of lives, whether we hear it on the radio, on television, from our car and home stereos. Different kinds of music are appropriate for different occasions. We come across it in the mellifluous tunes of a classical concert or in the devotional strains of a bhajan, the wedding band, or the reaper in the fields breaking into song to express the joys of life. Even warbling in the bathroom gives us a happy start to the day. Music has a very powerful therapeutic effect on the human psyche. It has always been part of our association with specific emotions, and those emotions themselves have given rise to great music.

The origins of Indian music can be traced back to the chanting of the Sama Veda nearly 4,000 years ago. The primacy of the voice, and the association of musical sound with prayer, were thus established early in the history of Indian music. Today, music is available for us in different forms and the choice for music varies from person to person just as the reading choices vary from one another. There is folk music, classical music, devotional music, instrumental, jazz, rock music, pop music, hindi movie songs and many more.

In the modern world, Music has gained an honourable designation of ‘HEALING WITHOUT MEDICINE’. Doctors feel that music therapy has been helping them in treating many people with problems like dementia, dyslexia depression and trauma.” Many children with learning disability and poor co-ordination have been able to learn, and respond to set pieces of music. Many people with genetic disability have found a new light in the form of music.

Dance critic Ashish Khokar cites an experiment as proof: “Music is produced from sound, and sound affects our sense perception in many ways. Even fish in an aquarium were once made to listen to different kinds of music and it was found that their movements corresponded with the beat of the music. Mind you, fish do not hear, they only felt the vibrations of the sound through water. So you can imagine what a profound effect sound and music might have on the human mind.”

Anand Avinash, founder of the Neuro Linguistic Consciousness workshop who has researched music therapy says,”the mystics and saints from ancient to modern times have shown how music can kindle the higher centers of the mind and enhance quality of life.” Mantras, or chants used in the West, repeated monotonously, help the mind to achieve a sense of balance. A combination of the sounds in Sanskrit mantras produce certain positive vibrations and elevate the mind to a higher lever of consciousness.

We all know that meditation cleanses the system of its negative energies and vibrations. And music is a powerful aid to meditation. In many meditation workshops, music is used to make people more aware of their moods and feelings. People are made to lie down and empty their minds and then listen to the music which is systematically changed so that they can fit through different emotions and state of consciousness.

Many people also believe that any music you respond to positively will work for you, regardless of its content. Thus, even pop music might work wonders for you.

Music affects all of us in some way or the other. It also is the most common interest of many people. People who love music, listen to it while traveling, reading, meditation, walking, some even have soft music while working in their busy routine. It helps them to relax and escape from the stress of our day-to-day lives. It can transport us to another time or place and it is a great feeling of seeing or doing or experiencing something different. People have special music corner for themselves and some people give importance to listening in silence and some people love to read with light music and even some people love listening to music before sleeping. Many people love listening to music in bathroom because they feel it is one of the few rooms in the home where privacy is routinely respected. Some people also love to sing in the bathroom and are called ‘bathroom singers’. Music has now become a part of our life as it serves different purposes for each one of us.

It serves as an entertainment tool. For instance, in an occasion or event, music plays a vital role that makes the event to be lively for the people. Similarly, it creates cordial relationship among the people.

Moreover, it serves as a tool for corrective measure. Music tell the people on the habit that is uncultured so that such behavior can be for better. Furthermore, it is an agent that is used to educate people. Music can easily convey message to the friends and enemies.

It serves as tool for settling dispute between two or more people. It often helps to put an end to disagreements after listening to related meaningful songs. Music is played for the group to show harmony among them.

Music also serves as a source of income to human life. It is a profession of particular classes of people like lyricist, playback singers, music directors, musicians, musical instrument players, djs etc.

Lastly, music serves as a message or symbol that indicates the occurrence that is going on in a particular place or event. For instance, If bad occurrence happen in a particular place the type of music played their will show the audience or listens what happened in that event. The type of music played will justify to the listeners what actually going on there.